[Sca-cooks] More venison stuff

[Stefan li Rous]

Daniel Raoul answered me with:
> Was asked:
> > Would it taste like leather though? Do deer eat acorns? Pigs do eat
> > acorns, and I've seen a number of period sources and referances to
> > feeding pigs on acorns, even today. The ham from pigs that were
> > specifically fattened on acorns didn't taste like leather. Maybe this
> > varies from animal to animal? Perhaps the original interest in
> > feeding pigs on acorns comes from being able to feed the pigs on
> > something that wasn't eaten by humans so it would therefor be
> > cheap. rather than the resulting taste. The acorns also appear in fall,
> > which was just before many of the pigs were slaughtered. It's probably
> > better to fatten up an animal just before slaughter.
>
> Depends on the acorns, check the Flori- and, if I recall correctly, you will
> find an extensive discussion which regards "sweet acorns" in Europe and the
> feeding of same to hogs in Spain.  They reportedly taste a bit like
> chestnuts.

Oops. Yes, now that you mention it, I do remember this conversation.
Apparently, even though "sweet acorns", they still weren't good enough
to become common human food except during famine but this could explain
the differance between what was mentioned here about the taste of deer
eating acorns and the pigs in Europe eating acorns.

For those who might care, this info should be in this file:
nuts-msg          (97K) 10/29/01    Nuts, acorns, nut flours in medieval foods.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/nuts-msg.html
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****